OVERVIEW:
This title was originally published by Speed Age in Hyattsville, Maryland, from May, 1947 through December, 1959. It specialized in racing in
the beginning, and it later expanded to include road tests of Detroit cars. Content included general automotive topics, racing updates,
antique and sports car content, and some technical information.
The tag line, "America's First Motor Racing Magazine", is an indication of how the publisher wanted to position the magazine for readers. It changed many times over the years of publication. But in the last attempt to find a new approach, it took a weird left turn with "Man's Conquest of Time and Space" in the last few issues.
This same title was used briefly in 1969 and a third time from 1987 to 1988.
OWNERSHIP:
The first publishers and editors were Don O'Reilly and Jimmy Quisenberry under the Speed Age brand. Additional staff members included
Roger Huntington and Walter A. Woron. Mr. Huntington contributed much technical material to many magazines from the
1950s through 1970s, and Walter Woron went on to join Petersen Publishing and helped run
Motor Trend and Auto Sportsman titles.
The title ceased publication in December, 1953 But it got a new owner and new life after a five month gap. It was restarted in June, 1954 by Henry Scharf who published under the entity Speed Sport Magazines, Inc. Mr. Scharf owned other titles including Car Life and Sports Car Guide. No personnel carried over from the first publisher's staff.
The table of contents, if available, can be seen by clicking on the 
icon.
PUBLICATION DATA:
Speed Age ranked number three in this time period among automotive titles that provided circulation details (behind
Hot Rod and Motor Trend).
The publisher reported annual net paid circulation started at 44,800, climbed to 395,000 issues, then settled in between 200,000 to
340,000 through the end of production.
CONTENT COMPLETENESS:
A total of 147 issues was printed from May, 1947 through December, 1959. All images are complete for this title.